TEXARKANA - Thirteen local nurses left Thursday night to help at a hospital in Beaumont, Texas, because of the flooding emergency being experienced in Southeast Texas.
The entourage includes 12 registered nurses and one RN manager from CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System. They will provide backup for CHRISTUS St. Elizabeth.
"This was 100% voluntary," said Francine Francis, St. Michael communications director.
St. Michael officials began communicating with people at St. Elizabeth Thursday morning.
"CMS received a call asking if we would be able to send nurses. Throughout the day, they stayed in contact to see if St. Elizabeth would need them or if they would be evacuating their hospital," Francis said.
At 5:30 Thursday evening St. Michael got word that nurses were needed.
"Within two hours, the 13 nurses had packed and returned to the hospital for departure. Most brought sleeping bags as it was not guaranteed they would have a bed to sleep in even after traveling through the night," Francis said.
The nurses that responded either came from the Intensive Care Unit or were telemetry nurses because that was the greatest need at St. Elizabeth.
They are staying through Monday but are prepared for that date to change depending on the weather.